PROTEIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATIONS IN O CELLATED LIZARDS (LACERTIDAE) - A COMPLEX OF SPECIES ACROSS THE STRAIT-OF-GIBRALTAR

We have studied protein and morphological variation patterns in lizard belonging to several European and African populations of the ocellate d lizard complex, a group of species distributed in the western Medite rranean region. European ocellated lizard (Lacerta lepida ssp. lepida, iberica, nevadensis) are highly, variable in body shape, folidosis, c olour and dentition characteristics along the large latitudinal range of their distribution area, but relatively homogeneous for electrophor etic characteristics African ocellated lizard hardly present any varia tion in folidotic characteristics along their distribution area - a na rrow strip between the Mediterranean sea and the Sahara desert cut int o 2 isolated halves by the extremely arid valley of the Moulouya -, bu t electrophoretic results reveal important differences between Algero- Tunisian (Lacerta pater) and Moroccan (Lacerta tangitana [new combinat ion]) populations. These differences are as large as those existing be tween Moroccan and European populations, two well differentiated speci es. This pattern of distribution, with differentiated species in the I berian peninsula Moroccan mountains and Algero-Tunisian Tell mountains , is also common in other species complexes and suggests the presence of an important geographic barrier between eastern and western Maghreb at the same time as the opening of the Strait of Gibraltar.